I'm still digesting this, I think I appreciate and respected it for taking risks more than liking it. Wright doesn't play it safe and is constantly subverting expectations, but when you take risks, they don't always pay off. It's meticulously put together, edited, production design, cinematography, most of the acting works, it just never builds to the crescendo it could have, and I think a big part of that is Wright trying to subvert what we think is going to happen, but then it deflates the balloon of escalation that the film is building when you do that.
It's not a surprise that Walter Hill was a huge influence on this movie, it's definitely a big love letter to movies like The Driver and Streets of Fire, his DNA is all over the movie, but there's a reason the majority of Hill's filmography is definitively in the "cult" category, because as perfect as some elements are in those films, there's a lot that doesn't gel completely or feels off from the rest of the flow of the film.
A think a big part of that is Baby himself, Ansel Elgort never quite clicks as the lead, his laconic demeanor doesn't feel effortless, it feels forced. What Gosling was able to do in Drive so effortlessly, Elgort doesn't naturally look or feel like a guy who has that rhythm, it looks and feels rehearsed, not spontaneous or spur-of-the-moment joyful like it should be. If I had to make a comparison to a Walter Hill film, it would be Michael Paré in Streets of Fire, who never quite clicks as being effortlessly cool the way other actors of his generation did (or his co-star Willem Dafoe as the antagonist did), and Elgort is kind of in the same boat.
it's still absolutely worth seeing in the theater, as all of Wright's films are a treasure trove of film riches, but it never feels effortless like Hot Fuzz, it never goes all out and embraces where the movie should go for the sake of the audience, it's Wright trying to be a little too clever in subverting the cliches of the genre for his own good.